The route now crosses the Mid Cheshire Ridge. The land is hilly and the soils poorer and sandy here so dairy farming gives way to Forestry. This is Delamere Forest, and the poor soils create a wide range of wildlife habitats, and several wildlife reserves, including the beaver reserve managed by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust . Our 10 mile route is twisty in order to take in several of these reserves and other features of the area.
- PREVIOUS SECTION: Chester to Kelsall
- STRATING POINT: Morris Dancer Pub, Kelsall (///keeps.lunching.messy)
MAP 1: Kelsall to Hatchmere
1. From Chester Road (///keeps.lunching.messy), enter Hollands Lane by the co-op, then almost immediately turn right into Chapel Bank. Pass the Methodist Chapel on your left, and go straight ahead to enter the very narrow Grub Lane. Follow this to the top where it comes out at the junction of Duttons Lane (to your right) and Brooms Lane (to your left). Take Brooms Lane left, and continue to follow it where it bends right (the Eddisbury Way leaves us here cross the busy A556). At the T-junction at the end of Brooms Lane, turn left and follow Old Coach Road till it joins Chester Road after about ¼ mile. Continue along Chester Road to the Farmers Arms.
- REFRESHMENST: Farmers Arms is the last pub you pass in Kelsall.
2. Turn left by the Farmers Arms into a narrow lane to cross the A556 safely on a bridge.
- POINT OF INTEREST: The Mount Pleasant Gardens and Sculpture Trail is on your left.
3. Opposite the car park for Mount Pleasant, turn right into Forest Gate Lane and follow as it becomes a track and enters the woods. About 150 yards into the woods is a ‘footpath crossroads’ with Sandstone Trail signposted right and left, and Pale Heights straight on. Tale the Pale Heights path and follow as it as it ascends and passes various transmission masts on your right, until you reach Pale Heights viewpoint.
- POINT OF INTEREST: This is a magnificent viewpoint and the highest point on the northern Sandstone Ridge, with modern standing stones and a ring of topographical plaques pointing out places of interest. These include several landmarks either on or near the walk you have completed – including Flintshire Bridge, Dee Estuary, and Thurstaston Hill – as well as several still to come – including Northwich, Jodrell Bank, Teggs Nose and Cat & Fiddle where you will hopefully end after Shining Tor.
- SHORTCUT: You can omit (or defer) a major section through Delamere by going direct from Pale Heights to the railway station, but it misses much of interest.
4. From Pale Heights, retrace the path you arrived on for a short distance then take a right, going downhill to join the Sandstone Trail at the edge of some woods. Turn right through the stile and continue on the Sandstone Trail which shortly turns left at a crossroad of tracks with Eddisbury Lodge farm in front of you.
5. After a short distance follow Sandstone Trail sign right on a footpath skirting Eddisbury Lodge Farm. The path widens to a track again and eventually crosses the railway at a bridge (with a sign “Max 3 Tons”). Turn immediately left after the bridge and follow the indistinct path alongside the railway fence to the next bridge (with sign “Max 26 Tons”). You will have noticed by now that the forest is littered with location marker posts for emergencies – and the one by this bridge is ICE 49. Cross back over the railway again, and take a left about 40 yards after the bridge (Signed with a black CWT roundel). Black Lake is about 100 yards in front of you.
- WILDLIFE NOTE: Black Lake is haven for dragonflies and damselflies, from the impressive hawkers, to delicate darters and the chaser dragonflies. The lake is a small pool and associated bog lying in a natural depression in the land. An example of early ‘schwingmoor’ or floating bog development, over half of the pool is covered by a delicate sphagnum ‘raft’. On the outer most regions of the raft, associated bog flora is dominant above the carpet of sphagnum, with scattered saplings and young trees found throughout. These trees become waterlogged as they increase in weight, and eventually fall through the sphagnum raft and die. This natural process helps prevent the bog from becoming woodland. (info from CWT).
6. Cross back over the ’26 Ton’ Bridge and following Baker Way signs till it joins Sandstone Trail, then turn left to follow Sandstone Trail till it crosses a road by Barnsbridge Car Park. About 100 yards after crossing the road (at ICE point 31), the track forks with the Sandstone Trail going left and the blue ‘Delamere Loop’ sign with the horseshoe pointing right. Take the right route and follow blue Delamere Loop markers, at ICE point 30 again take the blue route right and again at ICE point 29. On reaching ICE point 28 (which also has a bench to the memory of a lady and her 2 chocolate Labradors), leave the blue Delamere Loop horse trail and take the track to the left (unsigned) which skirts round the edge of a clearing. After 400 yards there is a large beech tree to your right with a forked trunk, and a well-used footpath left. Take this footpath as it goes downhill, and after about 100 yards it joins another path by a small footbridge and a CWT sign saying ‘Nature trail’ (If you missed the footpath off the track, don’t worry – there is another larger path to the left about 200 yards further on, which has a large post stating Cheshire Wildlife Trust Hatchmere Reserve). Either way, turn left to follow the nature trail.
7. Continue to follow the nature trail which circles clockwise round the lake of Hatchmere. After a few hundred yards a strong wire fence appears on your left – this is the enclosure created for the beavers.
- WILDLIFE NOTES: Beavers: On the first section of the nature trail a high fence to your left is the enclosure created to house the Beavers introduced to Cheshire by the CWT in 2020. Sadly access is only on guided tours on certain days See https://www.cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/ for more information).
WILDLIFE NOTES: Hatchmere: Further on Hatchmere is home to many birds including the great crested grebe, reed bunting and willow warbler. Common reed and lesser reed mace almost encircle the mere. As well as the mere itself, the reserve includes the surrounding fens, wet woodland and wet heath. Up to 13 species of dragonfly and damselfly having been recorded on the reserve, including the rare hairy dragonfly and the variable damselfly (Info from CWT).
8. Further on, the path emerges onto the B5152 road. Cross the road carefully, then take the pavement turning right to a cleaning by the lake (crossing back over the road again!) with a bench and CWT interpretation board for Hatchmere, forming a popular picnic spot.
- POINT OF INTEREST: On the opposite side of the road to the lake is a small area of wild flowers with a memorial plaque to Private Samuel Sanders from WW1.
- REFRESHMENT: The Carriers Inn is next to the picnic spot.
8. From Hatchmere Lake, take the gravel lane beside the memorial to Samuel Sanders. At the top where the lane bears left, go straight on taking the path which almost immediately splits in two. Take either (the left one goes nearer Flaxmere moss but might be boggy in wet weather) to pass Flaxmere.
- WILDLIFE NOTE: Although called Flaxmere this area is one of Cheshire’s mosses rather than a mere. It is classified as an SSSI and in recent years had been suffering from a number of threats. These included growth of scrub, a large stand of Himalayan balsam, a stand of Japanese knotweed, and high levels of nitrates in external ditches, which was then mingling with the water on the edge of Flaxmere. Very active management by the Norley Wildlife Group from CWT has cut back scrub, hand pulled the Balsam and sprayed the knotweed over several years to reduce these threats, and constructed a bund to re-establish the edge of the drain. This has resulted in the site being reclassified from ‘Unfavourable – declining’ to ‘Unfavourable – recovering’ (Info from CWT). Supporting the Wildlife Trusts can help fund work like this.
9. The path rejoins another track which soon joins a minor road at junction. Take the road right, to go back into the village of Hatchmere
MAP 2: Hatchmere to Oakmere Country Park
10. At the crossroads go straight over. As soon as you enter the woods there is a large sign to your left ‘Lost meres and mosses of Delamere’ and a track leading uphill going left from it. Follow this track which soon descends then joins a stream. Follow the track beside the stream till you emerge at a wider track and a fence. Blakemere is visible through the trees in front of you. Turn left and follow the path round the edge of Blakemere parallel to the B5152 road. Where the lakeside path starts to turn away from the road, leave the path and walk beside the B5152 road (taking great care as the traffic here can be fast), until you cross the railway at Delamere Station. (///glad.mills.lunging)
- TRANSPORT: Regular trains back to Chester or onward to Northwich.
- REFRESHMENT: Ice cream and cafe at the station.
11. From Delamere Station, go south along the B5251 for about 100 yards to Golf Course Road (just before a roundabout for the new housing development), to the right of which is a partly obscured footpath sign for Oakmere Way. Follow this footpath as it winds its way past the new housing development on your right, and the golf course on your left. In a dip there is a junction of footpaths and your route – again signed Oakmere Way – is to your left. Along this path to your right are views over the huge Crown Farm sand quarries managed by Tarmac, and to your left, the dense Hornby’s Rough Wood.
- WILDLIFE NOTE: As the Crown Farm sand quarries become worked out, Tarmac has agreed to hand them to the Cheshire Wildlife Trust to manage as a wildlife reserves. The steep flower-rich banks support sand martins as well as a rich diversity of pollinators such as solitary bees and specialist grassland butterflies including the small heath butterfly and the common blue and small copper butterflies. As the quarry is still being worked, there is no public access to the reserve unless you book onto one of Cheshire Wildlife trust’s guided walks which occur throughout the year. The best view of the reserve is from our path looking right while walking the long straight section heading north east. The CWT plans to develop this site so by the time you read this there may be an interpretation board by the path or at some future date access may change.
11. After a series of wiggles, you eventually emerge onto Stonyford Lane, with the entrance to the Sand Quarry to your right. Turn right and follow the lane to the A556.
- TRANSPORT: There is a bus stop called Oakmere Country Park about 100 yards to your right, for bus 82 returning to Kelsall or Chester or onward to Northwich, .
- END OF SECTION: Junction of Stonyford Lane and A556 ///examiner.swaps.paddlers
- NEXT SECTION: Oakmere Crossroads to Northwich
Eric Thurston Wildlife Way 